I call on Sinn Féin to disassociate itself from the commemoration, to call for it to be cancelled-----

-----and to condemn the violent crime which this bus bomb was.

I appreciate that the backlog in primary medical certificate assessments is causing a great deal of distress for hundreds of people across the country. It has been raised with my constituency office as well. I will make contact with the HSE to see if anything can be done to speed up matters. It is important that the assessments be done.

Let me just say-----

I am a great supporter of a technological university for the south east. One of my regrets as Taoiseach in the previous Government is that this is one of the measures we did not get over the line. I am determined that we will get it done and up and running in 2022. While I am strongly of the view that it should be centred in Waterford city and we should use some available sites there to expand the university further, it would be a shame if it got delayed or caught up in a row over where the president's office is or…

I thank the Deputy for raising these issues. My colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, has done a great deal of work on the case of Mr. Richard O'Halloran and in trying to assist that gentleman and his family. The issues the Deputy raised in respect of others who may be detained are pertinent and ones in which the Government takes an interest. Perhaps the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence may wish to take an interest in them as well.

To be clear, there is no date set or agreed as yet. What is being planned for is a phased return of schools across March and into the Easter period, starting with sixth years and the youngest years in primary school. That would also include special schools and special classes that are 50% back being back 100%, as they should be.

I will take them up with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. Taxi drivers have suffered more than most in this pandemic. They have experienced a significant loss of income and their vehicles have not been used much in the past year or so. The Deputy's suggestions make sense and I will take them up with the Minister.

I thank the Deputy. I am afraid I do not have an update on this. My understanding is that the NASRA, which is associated with the PNA, is not recognised by the HSE because it has existing agreements with another union. I think it is SIPTU but I am not 100% sure. I will certainly ask the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to provide an update for the Deputy.

I thank the Deputy. I have read about the case but I am not an expert on it. I want to be careful about what I say on such a sensitive issue. I know that after the apology I made as Taoiseach we made offers to ten or 16 people, most of whom accepted them, but there are now difficulties with people who did not apply for the ex gratia scheme at the time because they believed they would not be eligible. What we will probably have to do is reopen the scheme or re-establish it. I know that work is ongoing by the Departm…

I am not aware of a directive on this matter but I will check it out and come back to the Deputy.

I understand where the Deputy is going with this but I am constrained by stock market rules in what I can say in this regard. What I will say is, as I said earlier, that the Government supports the concept of establishing a third banking force with sufficient scale to challenge Bank of Ireland and AIB. We have never really had that in Ireland and it would be a good thing to have it. We also need to make sure we get it right. The last thing we want to establish is a third banking force that is weak at birth. It need…

I thank the Deputies. The list of mass vaccination centres is not exhaustive. There may be additional centres or centres that are open for a few weeks in one area and then moved to another area so that a large county can be catered for and perhaps this can include Limerick. I want to make the point very clearly that the list is not exhaustive and there may be additional centres. It is also important that people appreciate that many people, if not the majority of people, will not get the vaccine in a mass vaccinatio…

No.

No.

I am glad to have this opportunity to update the House on the topic of business and Covid-19 under this new format of statements and questions and answers. I look forward to answering Deputies' questions. I am sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Troy. Although today's topic is business and Covid-19, I will also speak about how my Department is supporting employees. Covid-19 financial assistance, low cost loans and workplace health and safety guidance are in place for workers as much as for businesses. E…

I thank the Deputy. The Minister for Finance is leading on this issue on behalf of the Government. He has been in touch, as recently as yesterday, with Ulster Bank and its parent, NatWest. He has also met with the FSU. He is keeping me, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, informed of the situation but he is the lead person for the Government on all aspects relating to the Ulster Bank situation. I understand that any restructuring that may occur will probably be for the Republic of Irela…

I thank the Deputy. I have no doubt whatsoever that bogus self-employment is very real and is a problem in our economy and our society but it is worth pointing out that the percentage of people who are self-employed in Ireland has not changed much in recent years. There is a narrative out there that there has been a huge drift to self-employment and that more people who in the past would have been directly employed are now self-employed. That is not the case. In fact, the percentage of people self-employed out of t…

I have to give the Deputy that one. The CRSS is working very well and I get very good feedback from businesses about it. It is helping them with their fixed costs. It is not the only scheme out there and there is a tourism continuity scheme for businesses that were not included. There is also a transport scheme and the new CBAS, which was only announced the other day. We should bear in mind the employment wage subsidy scheme, which helps with payroll, and the other schemes, including the CRSS, the CBAS and the tour…

The aviation task force report is probably pretty out of date at this stage. It involves reopening our skies and allowing people to fly again but the country has moved on from that process, which was to rely on testing. We are not relying solely on such testing anymore. I say very clearly that Aer Lingus will not be allowed to fail. It is already receiving substantial financial support from the Government both through the employment wage subsidy scheme and funding through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. Conf…